A Gallup poll released Tuesday indicates South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is the clear frontrunner to become the country鈥檚 next president, with less than a week to go until the elections.
South Koreans go to the polls on June 3, capping months of political turmoil triggered by ex-leader Yoon Suk Yeol鈥檚 ill-fated effort to suspend civilian rule in December.
Gallup put Democratic Party leader Lee as the clear frontrunner, with 49 per cent of the respondents stating they saw him as the best candidate.
Trailing behind is conservative former labour minister Kim Moon-soo of the ruling People Power Party at 35 per cent.
In third place is Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party 鈥� running a campaign targeting South Korean youth 鈥� with 11 per cent.
The poll, conducted by Gallup Korea over the phone, surveyed 1,004 respondents over the weekend, with a stated margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The poll suggested the Democratic Party leader would win handily in almost all of the country, securing the most populous regions of capital Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi.
Third place Lee Jun-seok has faced growing pressure from conservatives to abandon his presidential bid to stop left-leaning Lee Jae-myung from winning.
But the 40-year-old has remained firm, declaring that his name will be 鈥榗learly visible鈥� on the ballot on election day.
Around five per cent of those polled said they had no preference or that they did not know who would be the best candidate.
The survey is one of the last to be released before next week鈥檚 vote, with further polls in the run-up banned.
Conservative candidate Kim shot to public attention in the aftermath of Yoon鈥檚 martial law debacle, when he declined to bow in apology to the public for failing to prevent the suspension of civilian rule.
After trailing behind Lee Jae-myung for weeks, he is slowly catching up.
A poll by Next Research released Monday suggested the gap between the two candidates had narrowed to just nine percentage points nationwide, and in Seoul to a mere 3.2 points.
Lee lost the 2022 presidential elections to Yoon by the smallest margin of any vote in the country鈥檚 history.
Tuesday鈥檚 poll indicated Lee Jae-myung would win even if he faced a unified conservative candidate.
And Lee Jun-seok at a press conference on Tuesday vowed there would be 鈥榥o candidate merger鈥� with 鈥榯hose responsible for the emergency martial law鈥�.
鈥業 will fight to the end and win,鈥� he said.
Heo Jin-jae, research director at Gallup Korea, said the fact that the election was now a 鈥榯hree way race鈥� 鈥� with a third candidate polling in double digits 鈥� was noteworthy.
But, he added, 鈥榚ven if Kim Moon-soo and Lee Jun-seok successfully unified their candidacy, I believe it will not be easy for them to win.鈥�
